This invention relates to computer monitoring devices and more specifically to a computer performance indicator which provides a dynamic display of the internal operations of a computer.
In recent years several computer monitoring devices have been introduced. These devices have in part proven unsatisfactory because they have not been designed as an integral part of a computer system. Hence, such monitor devices were forced to exhibit a generality which has made them difficult to use in several ways.
Use of conventional monitor devices gives rise to complications because of the manner in which they interface with the monitored system. For example, conventional monitors modify basic logical operations done on data received from the computer by means of a wired plugboard. The use of such a plugboard to vary the way in which the computer monitor processes information has proven particularly confusing. Moreover, the wired connection between the monitored computer and the performance monitor usually has to be changed whenever the area to be measured changes. Furthermore, such computer monitors have generally been restricted to measuring hardware events or events easily detected by various accessible flip-flops or signal levels within the monitored system.
In addition, the output options available from such monitors have proven inadequate. Conventional monitors make their ouput computer-readable by writing it on magnetic tape or a similar media. There is no capability to feed the computer data directly back to the computer. Also, other monitors either force a user to select from a fixed group of time windows (2 seconds, 4 seconds, 16 seconds, etc.) over which performance is examined or else do not provide the capability to automatically divide the total time spent in a measured operation by the window time. The lack of an automatic division capability complicates the resultant display presented to the user. Overall, the above factors have resulted in computer monitors which only the most sophisticated users can appreciate.